Five-phase permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) have inherent fault-tolerant capabilities. This paper analyzes the detection of inter-turn short circuit faults in five-phase PMSMs in their early stage, i.e. with only one turn in short circuit by means of the analysis of the stator currents and the zero-sequence voltage component (ZSVC) spectra. For this purpose, a parametric model of five-phase PMSMs which accounts for the effects of inter-turn short circuits is developed to determine the most suitable harmonic frequencies to be analyzed to detect such faults. The amplitudes of these fault harmonic are analyzed in detail by means of finite-elements method (FEM) simulations, which corroborate the predictions of the parametric model. A low-speed five-phase PMSM for in-wheel applications is studied and modeled. This paper shows that the ZSVC-based method provides better sensitivity to diagnose inter-turn faults in the analyzed low-speed application. Results presented under a wide speed range and different load levels show that it is feasible to diagnose such faults in their early stage, thus allowing applying a post-fault strategy to minimize their effects while ensuring a safe operation.